Nathan Lane

The evening was billed as “Artist Encounter”: Actors Brian Dennehy and Nathan Lane took to the Goodman Theatre stage Tuesday night for a conversation with the Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones and Rick Kogan. For the audience, it was a mix of insight offered by the actors during an hour and a half of free-ranging discussion and questions. The two are starring in the Goodman's upcoming production of “The Iceman Cometh,” a four-hour-plus staging...

Nathan Lane never turns off his sense of humor, one of many reasons that he is this year's recipient of the Peter Ustinov Comedy Award at the Banff World Media Festival . "I'm always thrilled when anyone wants to give me an award," Lane says. "Although I somehow think there's been a horrible mistake. " Lane, who began his career as a stand-up comedian but has since worked in TV, film and theater, has a longstanding passion for life on the stage....

Nathan Lane never turns off his sense of humor, one of many reasons that he is this year's recipient of the Peter Ustinov Comedy Award at the Banff World Media Festival . "I'm always thrilled when anyone wants to give me an award," Lane says. "Although I somehow think there's been a horrible mistake. " Lane, who began his career as a stand-up comedian but has since worked in TV, film and theater, has a longstanding passion for life on the stage....

In October 1990, a 36-year-old named Robert Falls was six years into his tenure at the artistic head of Goodman Theatre; he was little known outside Chicago. At 52 and with newly silver hair, the imposing, 6-foot-3-inch Brian Dennehy was at the height of his gritty movie career; that year, he'd played prosecuting attorney Raymond Horgan in the massively successful adaptation of Scott Turow's "Presumed Innocent," which grossed more than $220 million. Falls and Dennehy were not unknown to each...

NBC has made a big commitment to actor Nathan Lane's new sitcom. The network has reportedly agreed to air 13 episodes beginning next fall on one of its two-highest rated nights, Tuesday or Thursday. The sitcom features Lane as a former opera singer who moves to California's Napa Valley to help run the family vineyard. Lane is perhaps best known for his role as Robin Williams' drag queen significant other in "The Birdcage."

The evening was billed as “Artist Encounter”: Actors Brian Dennehy and Nathan Lane took to the Goodman Theatre stage Tuesday night for a conversation with the Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones and Rick Kogan. For the audience, it was a mix of insight offered by the actors during an hour and a half of free-ranging discussion and questions. The two are starring in the Goodman's upcoming production of “The Iceman Cometh,” a four-hour-plus staging...

Surrounded by Charles Addams' sweetish ghoulish renderings of Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Pugsley and, of course, Wednesday, the Chicago-based producer Stuart Oken revealed more details Monday afternoon about his current baby: a new Broadway musical based on "The Addams Family." With music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa ("The Wild Party"), book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice ("Jersey Boys"), and direction and design by the new-to-Broadway British team of Phelim McDermott and...

Nathan Lane is the toast of Broadway, but he can't catch a break in Ft. Worth. The normally effusive and entertaining Lane, who stars with British actor Lee Evans in the recently opened comedy "Mouse Hunt," was noticeably glum as he walked into a Los Angeles hotel suite. He had just completed a telephone interview with a critic from Texas who apparently does not approve of Lane's sudden shift in career direction. The critic implied that Lane should stay on the musical stage...

Nathan Lane, one of Broadway's most bankable names and the original star of "The Addams Family" and "The Producers," will appear alongside Brian Dennehy next spring at the Goodman Theatre.The storied duo will star in a new production of Eugene O'Neill's epic drama "The Iceman Cometh," directed by Goodman artistic director Robert Falls. "Nathan had approached me about wanting to work on an O'Neill play," Falls said, "and I have finally been able to put together...

Nathan Lane missed performances of "The Addams Family" at the Oriental Theatre over the weekend because of illness. Few audience members reportedly opted for ticket refunds. Lane is expected to be back with the show Tuesday.

Ford Center for the Performing Arts (24 W. Randolph St.) through Jan. 10 The world premiere of the Broadway-bound musical "The Addams Family" is unique and well worth the trip. This modern spin, starring Nathan Lane (Gomez) and Bebe Neuwirth (Morticia), tracks the story of their daughter Wednesday falling in love with someone from a "normal" family. The intricate set and mostly-captivating musical score are the strongest points. However, the show, written by Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman,...

Basta! Basta! If Nathan Lane and his producers can call his new sitcom about a self-infatuated opera singer "Encore! Encore!," French and now English for "more," then I, having endured two episodes of the thing, can respond with the Italian word for "enough." It is a polite reaction to what was one of the most anticipated shows of the fall season but which arrives on the schedule Tuesday, after much tinkering, as another example of the bad things that can happen when writers construct shows around...

Nathan Lane missed performances of "The Addams Family" at the Oriental Theatre over the weekend because of illness. Few audience members reportedly opted for ticket refunds. Lane is expected to be back with the show Tuesday.

For Nathan Lane, 2001 in Chicago was the happiest of times (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). The out-of-town tryout of Mel Brooks' "The Producers," which starred Lane and Matthew Broderick as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, was greeted by cheering Chicagoans right from the first public performance. "In Chicago, they were even laughing at the bad stuff," Lane recalled over dinner at Petterino's, his favorite theater-district haunt. "When we...

For Nathan Lane, 2001 in Chicago was the happiest of times (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). The out-of-town tryout of Mel Brooks' "The Producers," which starred Lane and Matthew Broderick as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, was greeted by cheering Chicagoans right from the first public performance. "In Chicago, they were even laughing at the bad stuff," Lane recalled over dinner at Petterino's, his favorite theater-district haunt. "When we...

Incubus' next album to include concert video clips and backstage footage . . . Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane to star in big-screen version of "The Producers." ---------- Edited by RedEye staff (ritaredeye@tribune.com)

'Astro Boy' . Astro Boy originally appeared in 1951 as a supporting player in an Osamu Tezuka manga, or Japanese comic. He proved irresistible: those boots! Those flaming jets where the toes should be! That strategically pointy hair! What sort of atomic gel is this kid using? Astro's adventures led to an early '60s black-and-white Japanese TV series, and then to the first of the American spinoffs, and now "Astro Boy" has hit the big screen. The old TV theme song referred to the robotic wonder as...

Nathan Lane, looking appropriately dark and mustachioed for his upcoming role as Gomez in "The Addams Family," found himself back in a Chicago theater Wednesday on the eve of a Broadway tryout. The last time Lane was similarly in Chicago -- for Mel Brooks' "The Producers" -- the show quickly turned into international gold, so hopes are high for "The Addams Family," the new Broadway musical take on the beloved Charles Addams characters. It begins Chicago...